Pakistan admits to militant nests

Musharraf ends denial of havens near Afghan border

KABUL, Afghanistan — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made an unusually frank acknowledgment Sunday that Islamic militants are operating in tribal areas on his nation's side of the border with Afghanistan and providing support to insurgents fighting U.S. and NATO troops.

Musharraf's comments came in a joint appearance with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the closing session of a four-day tribal gathering in the Afghan capital, at which the neighboring nations pledged to cooperate in the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The traditional council, or jirga, was planned more than a year ago during simultaneous visits to Washington by Musharraf and Karzai. The Bush administration has for months urged the two leaders to work together and tone down their dispute over militants' presence in the tribal belt that straddles their 1,500-mile border.

As recently as last month, Pakistan sharply contested U.S. intelligence claims of a well-established Al Qaeda and Taliban presence in tribal areas on the Pakistani side of the border, where the central government has little or no authority.

After the release of a major U.S. intelligence report in July describing those areas as a haven for these groups, Pakistani officials said they had not been provided with hard evidence to back up the claims.

In his address, however, Musharraf admitted that "many of our border regions, especially the tribal areas, have been deeply affected by extremism."

"There is support from these areas to Taliban activity inside Afghanistan," he said. "There is no doubt Afghan militants are supported from Pakistani soil."

The jirga brought together about 600 tribal elders from both sides of the border. Conspicuously absent, though, were representatives from Pakistan's tribal area of North Waziristan, which has been the focal point of fighting between Pakistani security forces and insurgents.

Some of the Waziristan elders said local Taliban had threatened reprisals if they attended the gathering.

In a closing joint statement, representatives declared that "terrorism is a common threat to both countries, and the war on terrorism should continue to be an integral part of the national policies and security strategies of both countries."

However, the participants agreed on little in the way of concrete steps.

As the jirga was concluding in Kabul, there was more violence on both sides of the border.

Three American soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed Sunday in a roadside bombing in eastern Nangarhar province, military and local Afghan officials said.

Taliban fighters in southern Uruzgan province attacked a remote U.S. firebase Saturday night for the third time in less than a week. The American military said dozens of insurgents had been killed in those clashes and that it was believed the Taliban was probing the base's defenses in preparation for a large-scale assault.

Frontal assaults on fortified positions of North Atlantic Treaty Organization or U.S. troops are unusual for Taliban fighters.

In North Waziristan, officials in Pakistan reported Sunday that the bodies of two men were found dismembered and decapitated, with notes declaring them to have been "spies" for the Americans.